Fooling you, fooling me
by Hestert
Summary: He fooled you and he fooled me. But no longer! The way I think Albus Dumbledore solved his little problem of pretending to die. Not DHcompliant!
1. Preperations

Dumbledore looked around his office once more. Harry would be coming soon and he thought his plan over for the last time. It was rather complicated, but it would do. Fawkes made a soft sound.

"Yes, Fawkes, I'll make sure that Minerva feeds you", he sighed. "As long as you do your thing right, I'll be back before you know it!" he then continued more chipper.

He thought over his plan again, just to be sure. Did he have everything he needed?

Time Turner. Check.  
Time Stopper. Check.  
Fawkes knew that he had to seal the office. Check.  
Explanation note for Minerva. Check.

He was finally relaxed when he realized everything was prepared. Until it hit him like a brick; he was going to fake his death.

* * *

_(No, it's not finished... )_


	2. Damn plan

"Dumbledore cornered!" Amycus said. "Dumbledore wandless, Dumbledore alone! Well done, Draco, well done!"

Stay calm, Albus, don't show it to them. "Good evening, Amycus," Albus replied as calmly as he could. "And you've brought Alecto too … charming …"

Good, good. Joking was good. It bought him time to figure out what he would do next. Why could his plans never work the first time he tried!

Amycus and the other Death Eaters were still harassing him, but he kept his cool and replied as annoyingly polite as he could. But … was that?

"Is that you, Fenrir?" he asked. Oh no, now his plan really was falling apart. Fenrir must be the second person on the list of persons he never wanted to see in his school.

Everything had been going fine, until Harry and he ran into that damned potion of Tom. He hadn't expected to lose this much energy by it and leave Harry to Apparate him back!

Harry. Albus was wishing very hard that Harry would stay quiet and safe. At least that seemed to be going according to plan. And a very simple plan it had been!

He and Harry would go get the Horcrux, go back to school, let Malfoy kill a clone, take Malfoy down and live happily ever after. The part of taking Malfoy down was he most complicated, he thought. He would used the Time Turner to go back 15 minutes or so, make the clone, use the Time Stopper and Replace the Past him with the clone. Malfoy kills clone --> Malfoy distracted and very susceptible to a nice Stupefy.

Easy as that he had thought. Right up to the point where Malfoy had apparently managed to drag a dozen Death Eaters into his school.

BANG!

Severus came running through the door. He didn't seem all that surprised at the scene in front of him. Oh no, Albus thought.

"Severus," he whispered, but Severus was now looking at him like he was some sort of vermin that should be thoroughly terminated.

"Severus … please …" Albus tried again. Severus raised his want and pointed it at him.

"Fine! Have it your way then!" Albus suddenly said as he seemed to rise an inch off the ground and was surrounded by light. If this was Severus' true nature, then he would meet the fate that went with it.

Albus put his hand in his pocket and turned the Time Turner three times.

* * *

_(I know it's short again.. sorry but I gotta go watch OOTP in the cinema :-D )_


	3. Starting over

_(Damn. I have no idea how I am going to make Dumby stay alive without making it all a piece of cake. Although he would probably like that.)_

* * *

Albus saw everything around him start to twirl. That bloody fool of a Severus. And to think that he himself had trusted him. Maybe he ought to listen to the things Harry said a bit better…

Checking the planetary movements on his watch, he confirmed that he was indeed three hours in the past. Quickly he went down the stairs. After exiting the tower he scanned the halls and noticed that there wasn't anyone around.

Albus decided that he had to show himself to someone in order to make things change a bit in his favour and came to the conclusion that Minerva was the person he trusted most.

Thinking of Minerva he immediately got that light feeling in his stomach, that he always got when he of this particular woman.

With all his brilliance he still hadn't figured out what the feeling meant, either.

Albus shook his head to rouse his thoughts. He should stay focussed instead of letting his thoughts wonder to Minerva's beautiful raven black hair(which he imagined would be quite soft) or the way she seemed to float through the school(which he did too after spending another meeting sitting next to her).

Arriving at Minerva's chambers he softly knocked on the door.

"Albus! What are you still doing here? I thought you were going away with Harry", Minerva exclaimed when she saw him.

"Oh I was, my dear, but you see, there was a tiny little problem that needs to be dealt with", he replied. "Can I come in for a moment?"

"Of course, of course! Come in. Would you like some tea?"

So Minerva.

"I don't think this problem will be solved by tea, my dear," and he explained why he had come here:

"I need you to alert the other members of the Order and get them over here. They should guard the hallways and make sure that a bunch of Death Eaters are dealt with before they climb up the tower."

"What's in the tower?" she asked while pouring him some tea anyway.

"Umm … I'm not entirely sure that I should tell you that…" he carefully responded.

But when she looked at him with those beautiful emerald eyes he caved soon enough.

"Harry and I did go away tonight from the castle. We found what we were looking for, but I was a tad weakened and we ran into a bit of trouble on the highest tower. Apparently, Draco Malfoy is right now bringing Death Eaters into the castle. Well, maybe not right now but he will be within two hours," he started to explain, but Minerva interrupted him:

"Wait. You have already been away and you're back? And I hate to break it to you, but you don't look a _tad _weakened, you look like crap. Are you sure you are alright?"

She was scrutinizing him by now and then she put her hand on his thigh in a supportive gesture.

Albus was trying to form sentences in his head, but it very tough with her hand on his thigh. He could never think straight with her around!

"Oh … uh yes … yes I'm uh … just fine … yes fine …" His face felt like it was about to explode and he was sure he must look like he was on fire.

Besides from the almost-exploding head he was actually beginning to feel better. The fatigue was seeping out of his leg and his chest wasn't hurting with the stinging pains he had felt earlier. He told this still a bit stuttering to Minerva and a smiled formed on her face.

"Good, then I'm sure you would like a Ginger Newt."

* * *

_(wah just finished HP and the Deathly Hallows! For some reason we learned more about Dumbledore in this particular part, than in the other six books together. Not that I'm complaining... )_


	4. On the way

After he had stuffed a cookie in his mouth and avoided Minerva's seemingly endless questioning about his plan, Albus suggested they should get on the way.

"Alright, you can tell me about the rest of your plan while we walk," Minerva said.

At this, Albus felt a new blush creeping up his neck and he quickly looked away. Minerva didn't seem to like that one bit.

As soon as they had stepped out of her rooms, she turned to him and smiled sweetly.

"Albus dear, you're making it up as we go along, aren't you?"

The sentence had a venomous underlying tone and after years of practice, Albus was perfectly able to hear it. Still not looking at Minerva he tried to deny the obvious.

"No of course not … I'm just still working out the details!"

"Albus! You know what happened the last time you made up a plan along the way!"

"It wasn't that bad…"

"You left Umbridge in charge of the school and I ended up in St. Mungo's with FOUR stunners in my chest! You don't think that was bad? Stop lying to me, Albus, I know you visited me instead of being in hiding, so you've seen exactly how bad it was."

She had stopped walking, folded her arms in front of herself and looked furious. Albus realized that maybe he really should have thought up some sort of plan before going to her.

"Okay, so maybe my plan isn't entirely flawless, we still have a few hours to work it out!"

Minerva sighed. Another bad sign, Albus thought. He turned around and stood in front of her.

"I haven't told you enough how sorry I am about what happened last year," Albus started and he put his hands on her arms. "I'm very sorry," he whispered and pulled her into a hug.

Minerva resisted for a second but than just gave in and placed her arms around his waist while burying her face in his shoulder.

Albus wished they could just forget those ridiculous Death Eaters and stay like this forever. Oh yes, that would be wonder-

"Professor Dumbledore! What are you doing here?!"

Albus and Minerva jumped apart, startled, and Albus already had his hand in his robe to grab his wand before he realized he was about to curse Ronald Weasley.

Minerva seemed to have recuperated well before him and was already questioning the boy.

"What are you doing out of bed, Mr. Weasley?" She had put on her stern Professor-face again.

"Oh uh ... We're patrolling the hallways," he said as if that explained everything.

"May I inquire as to who '_we' _are?" Albus said with his trademark twinkle in his eyes.

"Me, Ginny and Neville," Ron answered.

Albus couldn't help but reach the conclusion that Harry must have put his friends up to this.

"I assume that Potter put you all up to this?" Minerva asked at the same moment.

"No!" Ron replied defensively. "He didn't put us up to anything. He ... uh ... he asked us to do this and we trust him and he wouldn't have asked if he didn't think something was wrong and he's usually right when he thinks something like that so we fully agreed that we should keep an eye out for Snape and Malfoy and-"

"Wait, Snape?" Albus suddenly spoke. ( "Professor Snape!" Minerva corrected them both.) "Harry had good reason to suspect that Professor Snape was involved?"

"Uh, well yeah! He heard him talking to Malfoy about letting him in on the plan, but Remus and all the others said that you probably told him to, so ... he didn't tell you."

Albus turned white. So that was what Harry had tried to convince him with. He turned around and banged his head against the wall once.

"Albus!" Minerva cried out. "Stop that!" and Albus couldn't help but comply.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

As Albus turned back he saw Ron looking at him like he had gone mental. He couldn't really blame him after that display. He really should start listening to suggestions besides his and Minerva's.

Then he saw something from the corner of his eye and he again put his hand in his robe before realizing that he didn't have his wand!

Luckily the movement turned out to be Neville and Ginny who were creeping along the hallway. They were holding some old parchment and didn't seem to have noticed the other people in their way.

"I swear it was a Crumple-Horned Snorkack!" Neville sounded quite certain.

"And I'm telling you they don't exist and you probably can't even see them on the Map!"

"What Map?" Albus asked with his friendliest voice.

Still, Ginny and Neville jumped like Voldemort himself had materialized in front of them.

"P-p-professor Dumbledore! Professor McGonagall! What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed do be with Harry, sir?" Neville finally managed to ask Albus.

"Oh, I am with Harry," he responded mysteriously. "Are there any more students out of bed that we should know of?"

While Albus was enjoying this display of bravery, Minerva seemed to be getting angrier with the second.

"I should hope not!" she managed to throw in.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Professor McGonagall," Ginny said calmly, "but Luna and Hermione are outside of Professor Snape's office at the moment. And this is the Marauders Map, I'm sure you've heard of it before, Professor Dumbledore," she ended a bit scolding.

Minerva looked like she was about to faint when she heard this. As far as she knew there hadn't been five students out of bed at the same time since the Marauders themselves had roamed the halls.

"Ah, I'm happy to see that Harry ignored my suggestions and took his own precautions," Albus smiled. "And speaking of precautions, can I borrow your spare wand, Minerva? I lost mine before I came to you."

Minerva obviously hadn't expected that.

"You lost your wand? Never mind, I don't want to know how you did that. You can try it but I can't guarantee that it will work for you. It didn't even like my brothers, so..."

She reached inside her right pocket and pulled out a long, thin, yew wand.

"Dragon heart string from the same dragon as my regular wand, yew, 12 inches. Give it a wave," she said unconvincingly.

But as soon as Albus took the wand a warm sensation spread through his arm and bright golden sparks flew from the tip.

"There doesn't seem to be any problem here," Albus grinned, while Minerva looked entirely surprised.

"So, please show me this map," he said to Ginny. She unfolded the paper and pointed her wand at it.

"I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good."

Immediately the lines began to form a map of Hogwarts, while Albus looked on curiously.

"Amazing! Are those dots all the people at Hogwarts?"

"Everyone except for Malfoy. He is in the Room of Requirement and while he's in there we can't see him. He must have asked the Room to become Unplottable or something."

Still amazed Albus studied the Map. Walking on the second floor were Filius and Pomona and apparently they were returning a Hufflepuff who had probably gotten 'lost'.

Indeed he couldn't find Draco Malfoy anywhere on the Map. But if he was already in the Room of Requirement then he could be …

Albus whitened and said: "We have to get to the seventh floor now! Neville, you have to go to my office and Floocall for help. Call the Order of the Phoenix and you'll probably reach Professor Lupin. Tell him to bring everyone who is on call and anyone else he can find. The gargoyle will let you through."

Neville got a determined look in his eyes, nodded and ran away in the direction of Albus' office.

"Ron, you have to go to the Staff Room and alert all the staff members. Take the Map with you so you can find them."

Ron nodded too and ran to the nearest staircase.

"Now, Ginny, you need to keep Professor Snape … busy," Albus ended with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

Ginny got the same devilish grin on her face as her brothers would when they had a plan.

"Sure thing, Professor!"

And she took off too.

"By Merlin, Albus, you're corrupting my cubs!" Minerva remarked.

"Ah, and I see that I need to corrupt you a little more too," Albus responded with a wink.

* * *

(_Sorry that it took so long to update, but I'm always exceptionally busy in my vacation... Totally weird.)_


End file.
